How to Inspect an Apartment if You Are a Landlord

If you are a property owner and you rent your house in London for a long term, it means that you need to take care of a lot of things. However, there are some things that you just need to control. One of those is, of course, the cleaning. If that was a short-term rental, you would have to be responsible for it, but in a long-term rental market, the tenant is the one who cleans all the mess. So how can you check, if the cleaning was made in an appropriate way and you can return your tenant the deposit?

When your tenant calls you telling that the cleaning is done, prepare to do a little inspection. You need to check all the spots that are difficult to reach and that are not usually seen. One of these places in located in the kitchen. When you are there, open the oven and the microwave and check if it’s clean inside. Then go to bathroom and look at the cranes and the area behind the toilet bowl. Check if the curtains are washed and move to the rooms. In the rooms check if it’s clean under the furniture like sofa, bed and cupboard. You might need to move some furniture a bit, explain your tenant that you are doing that not because you don’t trust him, but because you want to give him a good reference for a future landlord.

In case if you have found dirt and think that your apartment could have been cleaned better, recommend your tenant an cleaning company to use. He can even get a special cleaning in Barking, called end of tenancy cleaning. Don’t rush into argue when you see the dirt, there’s no need to have an unpleasant conversation and threaten with not giving back the deposit. Give your tenant another chance and let him prove that it was an accident.